Also cult; Latin: colere, to devote care to a person or thing; hence, to venerate, worship

Liturgy as the actual arrangement and execution of the public Divine worship as authorized by the Church. The Sacred Congregation of Rites, established by PopeSixtus V in 1587 as the authoritative organ of the Holy See, is the supreme arbiter.

In Hagiology, we must distinguish between public and private cult of the saints. Privately, cult (dulia) can be paid to any deceased of whose holiness we are certain. “Public cult may be shown only to those Servants of God who by the authority of the Church are numbered among the Saints and Beatified” (canon 1277), by the regular processes of canonization and beatification. Canonizedsaints may receive public cult everywhere and by any act of dulia; the beatified, however, only such acts and in such places as the Holy See permits (canon 1277, § 2). Saints may be chosen with papal confirmation, as patrons of nations, dioceses, provinces, confraternities, and other places and associations.